House rules, facilities and arrangements at Passfield Hall

To help you make the most of your stay, we have collated information specific to Passfield Hall. This includes local additions to the common house rules and information about hall specific facilities and services. More general information is available in your Student Halls Handbook.

Bicycles can be secured on the bike rack in the 'moat' area. They are stored at your own risk. We strongly recommend that you insure your bike against theft and vandalism as the standard insurance policy does not provide cover against the theft or damage of bicycles. Please contact your reception team for further details.We recommend to take out additional bike insurance, as your student insurance cover does not include bicycles as standard.

Whether or not you can make use of the garden is pretty dependent on the weather but when the sun is out the garden is a lovely place to sit and read for an essay, prepare for a class or perhaps do something a little less constructive.

Ball games, barbeques or fireworks are not permitted in the garden. Also see: House rules at Passfield Hall

A signing-in book for guests is kept at reception. Residents must be in reception to sign the guest book with their name and room number, the name of their guest and the date and time of their arrival. They must also sign their guest out when the guest leaves. Whenever a guest enters or exits the building, it is necessary that they are signed in or signed out. it is not sufficient that they were signed in earlier that day. Even when it is anticipated that a guest will visit only for a short period, they must be signed in. Please stick to our signing in procedure as it is in place for the security of the hall and its residents.

Guest admittance

Residents must not lend their keys to anyone, including guests. Guests should gain admittance to the hall through the hall security or reception staff each time they enter the building. The lending of keys to anyone will be treated as a significant breach of these rules.

Guest conduct

Residents are requested to keep within reason the number of guests they receive during the silence hours. Residents will be held responsible for the conduct of their guests and are liable for costs arising from any misconduct of those guests. No resident may bring into the hall as a guest a person who is banned by the warden from entering the premises. More information is in the Code of Conduct [PDF].

Day guest policy
Day guests are guests that visit between 11pm and 8am. All day guests must leave before 11pm and may not arrive before 8am. Accordingly, no day guests are allowed in the building between 11pm and 8am. Residents may host a maximum of two guests at any one time. Failure to sign out your guests on departure will be treated as an unauthorised overnight stay.

Guests staying overnight

Residents in single rooms may accommodate one guest overnight for up to three nights. Residents in shared rooms need the prior approval of their roommate(s) in order to receive any guest, the limit being one guest per resident for up to three nights. Residents who plan to receive guests for longer should request permission from the warden by e-mail at least a week in advance. Also see: Mattress and sleeping bag hire.

Students are required to be mindful and considerate of the needs of other residents. Excessive noise or any other unreasonable use of the room's facilities are unacceptable and will be deemed to be a breach of these rules and regulations. Silence hours are in effect from 11pm to 8am. Students are requested to be courteous to other residents and staff at all times.

Games

Games in the garden such as ball games, frisbee or anything inclined to cause any noise or damage are not permitted. Similarly barbeques are not permitted in the garden other than as part of official hall events. Fireworks are not permitted in the residence.

Prohibited areas

Various roofs and balconies are accessible from stairs and bedrooms. It is unsafe to access these areas. Any student accessing any of these areas in the residence will be expelled from the hall. During periods of maintenance works, prohibited areas will include any scaffolding that may have been put up.

Gambling

Gambling for money, tokens or similar is strictly prohibited within the hall. A first offence against this rule is likely to be treated as a section 2 offence as per the Code of Conduct. It should be noted however that cases are treated on individual merits and the offence could be treated at another level of seriousness. It should also be noted that repeat offending will lead to an offence being treated at a higher level than would otherwise be the case.

Studying in the dining room

The dining room serves as the only suitable study space in the hall. Residents should be considerate of the fact that others may wish to use the space to study. In the final term the priority use of the dining room is as a study space. In the evenings after dinner the space should be used for no other purpose.

Warden instructions

If the warden or a subwarden gives an instruction to a resident, e.g. to turn off the music in his/her room, to leave a specified area of the Hall etc., such an instruction must be complied with immediately, as it is given in order to maintain orderly life in the Hall and the well being of all its residents. If the person to whom the instruction was addressed thinks it is unwarranted, the matter may be raised with the warden, but only after the instruction has been complied with.

Penalties

The Code of Conduct provides some guidance to students on the range of penalties they can expect when an offence has been committed. However, a given offence is hard to define in absolute terms and penalties will vary between LSE residences to take account of special local conditions. Download the Residences Code of Conduct [PDF]

Despite its recent refit, Passfield Hall is still an old building, and as such some of the rooms can get cold when the weather is at its chilliest. In addition, as the building is a Grade II listed building, we are not allowed to install double glazing. Consequently, some of the windows can also be a little draughty.

Heating times

The temperature of the heating is constantly monitored and changed regularly to reflect significant changes in the weather and to comply with LSE's Environmental Sustainability Policy.

Room too cold?

As described above, due to the age of the building, some rooms may occasionally get cold in the chilliest weather. If this is the case, please let reception know as soon as possible. If it is a system fault we can aim to fix it as soon as is feasible. If it is a problem with the room, for example the windows etc, we are able to provide portable heaters and aim to fix any specific problems that can be addressed. No-one should have to live in a room that is too cold!

Heaters in rooms

The heating from the radiators in the rooms should be more than sufficient to meet your needs. Students are expected not to have their own heaters in rooms. If a room is too cold, the reception should be able to provide a fully vetted heater (see above). Please be warned that some designs of heaters (most particularly convector heaters) are considered a fire risk. Passfield reception will only ever provide oil-filled heaters. Students should NOT have convector heaters in their rooms.

When you arrive, you will be supplied with a bedroom key card that also opens the hall entrance door. During vacation periods this must be returned to the reception. Always use your key when accessing the building. If you fail to do so, you will be asked to record this at reception.

Residents must not lend their keys to anyone, including guests.

Lost keys cards

Please report any lost key cards to reception as soon as you can. A list of charges for replacement and temporary key cards can be found in the Student Halls Handbook [PDF]

Passfield is a catered hall, so the shared kitchen facilities are basic. There are eight small kitchens across the residence, one on each floor of the main building and two in each of the annex buildings. Each kitchen has a hob, microwave, kettle, two fridges and a toaster. The kitchen nearest to your room can be accessed with your room key. The size of kitchens and the number of people sharing them varies from floor to floor and building to building- the larger kitchens will have something like 30 people sharing them, the smallest as few as 10 or 12.

Guidelines for kitchen use

Wash your dishes after use if you don't want to lose them! Daily after 10am, any dirty dishes found on the work surface or anywhere in the kitchen will be disposed of without any additional warning.

Keep all food in the fridges and cupboards in plastic sealable containers. Any food (including dry food) left loose or outside the fridge and cupboards will be disposed of without additional warning.

Mark your kitchen utensils and containers. Permanent markers and labels are in the top drawer in the kitchens. They are also available from reception.

Fridge space is limited. Please do not store excessive amounts of food and only store food which requires refrigeration.

Do not take other people's food and refrain from using their utensils without their permission. If you have permission to use them, please wash them and put them back in their place after use.

If you take cutlery and crockery from the dining room or bar glasses to your room or kitchen, please return them after use.

Recycle as much as you can. Use the provided recycling facilities (including your room recycling bag) to increase our recycled waste and reduce general waste.

The self-serviced, card-operated laundry is located in the basement of the Taviton annexe. There are three washers and three driers. You can buy your laundry card at the dispenser in the laundry, and continue to top it up online throughout the year.

Any item found on hall premises should be handed to reception. If you have lost an item, please contact reception who will check for items handed in. From time to time, we will ask students to come and examine the lost property for their own items. Items still unclaimed after three months will be returned to the finder, discarded or recycled.

Your rent includes seven meals per week: dinner Sunday to Friday and brunch on Saturdays. The dining room is on the lower ground floor of the main building, overlooking the garden. During vacation times breakfast replaces all meals.

Dinner is served from 6.30pm until 8pm.

Brunch is served from 11am until 1pm on Saturdays.

Late meal collection

If you cannot make it to the dining room before the end of dinner, you can request a late meal. The catering team will then hold your food for you. This service has to be requested 24 hours in advance. Please speak to a member of catering staff during service the day before.

Comments

If you have any comment on the meals they can be addressed to the chef manager. For contact details, visit: Who's who

Mail, including periodicals, is deposited alphabetically in the mailboxes next to the lift on the lower ground floor. Post is kept for students during the Christmas and Easter vacations, and is placed in the mailbox as normal. Regretfully, however, we are not able to keep post for students over the summer vacation. Please inform banks that credit cards, cheque books etc. should not be delivered to the residence, but be kept at your local branch for collection.

Registered mail

You will be notified by email should any registered (that means they require a signature) or large items and parcels be delivered for you. Please check your email inbox regularly. These items are retained in reception until collected by the addressee.

Mail forwarding

Please ensure that mail does not arrive for you after your departure from the residence. Any mail delivered after you’re gone will be returned to sender. Mail can be forwarded to a different address by Royal Mail at a cost. Contact the local post office for details, or visit royalmail.com.

The reception deals with fax transmissions, registered mail, sleeping bag bookings and general enquiries. It also serves as a meeting point for residents.

Opening hours

During term-time the reception is open daily from 8am to 10pm. When the reception is closed, a security guard is available for general enquiries only, and the duty subwarden will assist with pastoral support and nuisance complaints.

If you have excess rubbish please bag it and take it to the bins on the Taviton Street side of the main building.

At the end of the year, the hall also takes part in the ReLove scheme, designed to divert waste from landfill: it is an opportunity for students to throw out the items they no longer need. Such items are then recycled or used again if they are suitable. More details about the scheme will be circulated closer to the time.

Bloomsbury is a relatively safe area but you should always remember that we are located in Central London. Common sense precautions such as not walking slowly, ensuring you don't walk alone at night, not displaying your mobile phone and keeping to well-lit main roads will all help. More detailed safety advice is available at Campus and London life.

Lock your room

For the safety of your belongings, never leave your door unlocked, when you leave your room. Also keep your windows shut when you are not at home. Please let reception know if your window locks are faulty, or use the online maintenance report form.

Close the front door

We urge you to make sure that the front door closes behind you when you enter or leave the hall, so that non-residents can not tailgate in behind you. If you suspect that there is an intruder in the hall, contact reception straight away, either in person or by dialling 020 7107 5925. Reception is staffed 24 hours a day by either a receptionist or security guard.

Security Guards

Overnight from 10pm to 8am, a security guard is present for the protection and safety of all residents. Please meet their insistence on proof of identity with courtesy. When in the residence, all issues of security should be directed to the guard. Issues of students causing noise/disturbance etc. should be directed in the first instance to the subwarden on duty. The security guard can contact the subwarden for you.

Smoking is prohibited within all LSE buildings, and this includes the halls of residence.

Smoking is not permitted in the garden at any time. Any resident found to be smoking outside in the garden will be disciplined in the same way as if they were found to be smoking in the building.

At Passfield Hall, smoking is permitted only outside the front of the building. However, we ask that smokers cross the road and smoke on the other side of the road. This is to stop the smell of smoke drifting in through the windows of rooms that are street-facing.

There is very limited storage space available for your belongings during the Easter and Christmas vacation periods. We do not provide any storage facilities during the term. For a list of local private storage companies, visit: Life around Passfield Hall

Most windows in Passfield hall are sash windows. The sash-cords may break as part of normal wear and tear, so you will not be charged for their replacement. Please report any broken sash-cords to reception, so we can repair them as soon as possible.

Window damage

You will be asked to complete an electronic inventory list on entering the hall, which will also include the window mechanisms. If you damage the stays/locks on your windows you will be charged with the cost of replacing them and any resulting damage to the windows. This can be very expensive, so please be careful.

Passfield Hall is a fire-certified building. We take the issue of fire safety extremely seriously, and residents are asked to do the same. Familiarise yourself with your fire assembly point and escape route, which are displayed on the fire notice in your room.

Use of this website is subject to, and implies acceptance of, its Terms of use (including Copyright and intellectual property, Privacy and data protection and Accessibility). The London School of Economics and Political Science is a School of the University of London. It is a charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Acts (Reg no. 70527).The registered office address of the School is: The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK; Tel: +44 (0)20 7405 7686